South-African Student Drop-out Crisis!  

'A shocking 40% of South African students drop-out of university in their first year, according to a new major study'

The ongoing cycle of poverty among black students in South Africa has been cited for the significant and alarming fall in the student population. A recent study has shown that an overwhelming 40% of South-African students  drop out of university within their first year.

Financial difficulties continue to hinder the progress of black students and this has been identified as one of the causes for the disturbing level of drop-outs. According to Moeketsi Letseka, the senior researcher who conducted the study another key cause is the previous generation's inability to help fund students adequately through the higher education system.

For these reasons students facing financial difficulties have essentially been forced to take on part-time or full-time work, diverting their focus from their studies and in some cases rendering them incapable of studying at all.

Many struggling South-African Universities faced with this problem have called upon the goverment to help raise extra student financing via bursaries, loans and grants to help relieve the financial strain on disadvantaged students. They have also introduced academic support systems for sub-standard schools across the country in an effort to decrease drop-out and failure rates.

Mauritius Unveils Ambitious Plans For Universities!

'The Government of Mauritius at a conference organised by the Tertiary Education Commission declared its aim of using higher education to transform Mauritius into a 'Knowledge Hub' by 2015.'

The plans include raising the student enrolment rate to 70% - more than four times the participation rate of any other Sub-Saharan African country, increasing the number of foreigners studying in the country and building a new campus at Reduit.

Rajeesh Jeetah, the minister responsible for higher education declared that "Every Mauritian family should be able to boast at least one graduate by 2015. Expanding on his plans, he proposed to increase the tertiary enrolment rate from the present 43% to 70% over the next five years and for 100,000 foreign students to have studied in Mauritian higher education by 2020. He added that at the same time it would be necessary to create an additional 10,000 jobs in the sector.

Under plans to attract 100,000 students from abroad over the next decade, the Mauritian Government intends to relax procedures for visa applications and work permits for foreign students, and ease formalities for foreign higher education establishments that want to open branches in Mauritius.

Emerging Economies Ahead In Employee Engagement!

'The developed world is facing a new threat from the emerging economies, not only in terms of manufacturing and service provision but also in their willingness to place employee engagement at the heart of their business.'

The developing world accounts for 84% of the world's population and by 2015, the emerging markets will comprise 26% of the world economy. If current case studies are to be believed, the emerging markets appear to be more appreciative of the need to energise the workforce and upskill their managers. 

For example TATA, the legendary Indian Corporate is placing great emphasis on training their managers, developing their listening skills and showing empathy towards their staff. This can be compared in direct contrast to Telecom France and EDF Energy in the developed world, where suicide rates in the last two years have jumped among their employees, attributed by commentators to changes in the work rosters and a general lack of engagement.

Royal Jet, an Abu Dhabi based company is another excellent example, where employees are encouraged to access and share information, ideas and other work related developments on a new employee portal called 'SAWA'. SAWA being the arabic word for 'together'